Sam Gilliam was an American color field painter and lyrical abstractionist artist.
37 Facts About Sam Gilliam
2.
Sam Gilliam's works have been described as belonging to abstract expressionism and lyrical abstraction.
3.
Sam Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on November 30,1933, the seventh of eight children born to Sam and Estery Gilliam.
4.
Sam Gilliam's father worked on the railroad; his mother cared for the large family.
5.
At a young age, Sam Gilliam wanted to be a cartoonist and spent most of his time drawing.
6.
Sam Gilliam attended Central High School in Louisville and graduated in 1951.
7.
From 1956 to 1958 Sam Gilliam served in the United States Army.
8.
Sam Gilliam listened to his college professor's advice to become a high school teacher and was able to teach art at Washington's McKinley High School.
9.
Sam Gilliam was devoted to developing his painting during his weekdays reserved for the classroom.
10.
In 1962, Sam Gilliam moved to Washington, DC, after marrying Washington Post reporter Dorothy Butler who is the first African American female reporter at the Washington Post.
11.
Later Sam Gilliam lived in Washington, DC, with his long-time partner, Annie Gawlak.
12.
Sam Gilliam was influenced by German Expressionists such as Emil Nolde, Paul Klee, and the American Bay Area Figurative School artist Nathan Oliveira.
13.
Sam Gilliam said that he found many clues about how to go about his work from Vladimir Tatlin, Frank Stella, Hans Hofmann, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Cezanne.
14.
Around 1965, Sam Gilliam became the first painter to introduce the idea of the unsupported canvas.
15.
Sam Gilliam was inspired to do this by observing laundry hanging outside his Washington studio.
16.
Sam Gilliam said that his paintings are based on the fact that the framework of the painting is in real space.
17.
Sam Gilliam was attracted to its power and the way it functioned.
18.
In 1972, Sam Gilliam represented the United States at the 36th Venice Biennale in a group show curated by Walter Hopps.
19.
The work had originally been shown at the Corcoran Gallery in 1969 in a show of Sam Gilliam's work organized by Hopps.
20.
Sam Gilliam was the first African-American artist to show at the Biennale for the United States, although no African-American artist represented the US with a solo show until Robert Colescott's solo exhibition in 1997.
21.
Sam Gilliam started producing dynamic geometric collages, which he called "Black Paintings" because they are painted in shades of black.
22.
Sam Gilliam showed his work very infrequently outside of Washington, DC, during this time, as a result of both his desire to work in his own community and a decline in interest from critics and museums in New York.
23.
In 2019 Sam Gilliam acquired representation through a New York-based gallery for the first time, Pace Gallery.
24.
Sam Gilliam's honors included eight honorary doctorates, and the Kentucky Governor's Award in the Arts.
25.
Sam Gilliam received several National Endowment for the Arts grants, the Longview Foundation Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
26.
Sam Gilliam received the Art Institute of Chicago's Norman W Harris Prize, and an Artist's Fellowship from the Washington Gallery of Modern Art.
27.
Sam Gilliam was named the 2006 University of Louisville Alumnus of the Year.
28.
In 1987 Gilliam was selected by the Smithsonian Art Collectors Program to produce a print to celebrate the opening of the S Dillon Ripley Center in the National Mall.
29.
Sam Gilliam donated his talent to produce In Celebration, a 35-color limited-edition serigraph that highlighted his trademark use of color.
30.
In January 2015, Sam Gilliam was awarded the Medal of Art by the US State Department for his longtime contributions to Art in Embassies and cultural diplomacy.
31.
Sam Gilliam's work was shown in embassies and diplomatic facilities in over 20 countries during his career.
32.
In 2016, Sam Gilliam was commissioned to produce a piece as part of the grand opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
33.
In 1962, Sam Gilliam married Dorothy Butler, a Louisville native and the first African-American female columnist at The Washington Post.
34.
Sam Gilliam died of renal failure at his home in Washington, DC, on June 25,2022, at the age of 88.
35.
Sam Gilliam staged a large number of solo shows in the United States and internationally.
36.
Full Circle was Sam Gilliam's final show during his lifetime, opening one month before his death.
37.
Late Paintings was the final show Sam Gilliam had planned during his life and was his first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom.